you touched upon one of my other issues with the deer hunter - the pacing is a disaster. the first hour ish is incredibly slow pacing and then minus the first Russian roulette scene it’s a whirlwind of pacing until the end of the movie. really, really needed a much better editing job. cinematography? generally great. though you start to get some of that “everything dim all the time” approach during the fall of saigon sequence. the main reason i watched it is as part of an effort to watch every feature length film which john cazale has been in, which, isn’t a very long list…
Dude that movie is like swimming through molasses. Never let a cinematographer drive the bus - you'll end up with 15 second shots of a bug on a leaf.
If you could change one thing script edits or mapquest directions cinematography choices which would make the bigger difference?